liars amoung us
by noruas bombadil
Summary: the time has come for Jaune to lead the investigation into sabotage of team rockslide's gear on their mission. this is meant to be read after home for the holidays. and takes place in Jorge 6prime. reviews are appreciated and read as well as responded to. as always be honest kind and human. also, Bud isn't in the records so he has to go in under OC.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Once team rockslide returned to Beacon Jaune sent RWBY and PLNR to their dorms and told them he would be back soon. Then he made his way to the room Ozpin had set aside for him. He didn't really have a major use for the room as he tried to sleep in the dorms of his teams but they did have one use. On account of how they were out of rooms in the other dorms, his dorm was located in the Teacher's wing. This afforded Jaune several advantages such as the fact that his room was almost impenetrable to most students and the ones who could get in either couldn't get out or couldn't get out without getting caught. He had packed all of the gear his team had used on their most recent mission. It took him a long time to gather all of the surviving gear from the school. Thankfully in the event of the death of a student the gear the school supplied is held until they can determine the COD of the student. And since the in question student went MIA and was declared KIA because the detonators the school gave them were faulty the gear was held even longer.

"Jaune" upon hearing his name Jaune turned to see the short and robust frame of professor Peter Port approaching him. "I heard you were waiting for the arrival of one Coby Hansen."

Jaune nodded slowly. He was both impressed that the teacher was able to learn of the incoming tech expert. And Jaune was also concerned that he learned it so quickly. Truly it was a double-edged sword.

Jaune's thoughts were interrupted by the histrionic teacher's words " When the young lad arrives do keep an eye out for the construction vehicle that he is most likely to turn up in. and when you see them tell the vehicle that I said hello."

Thoroughly confused by the teacher's odd request Jaune simply nodded and went into his room. The Tech experts that Jorge was bringing in were supposed to be here tomorrow. For this reason, he choose to sleep here with the gear and bring it to the armory. The experts would meet him there.

As he made his way to the bedroom in his dorm he calmly stripped off his ballistic vest and black Battle Dress Uniform or BDU pants. He neatly hurled them into a crumpled heap by the side of his bed. Then pouring himself into his own bed. Landing his head on his pillow he allowed the past week of trying shenanigans from his team to wash over him as he prepped for the investigation to come. The last thoughts to pass his mind was that he would soon know who tried to have his team killed.

…

Pyrrha and Ruby had arrived at the docking bay five minutes early. They were told to meet the experts at 8 in the morning. Their teams, of course, insisted on coming with them. They were considering returning back to the dorm they saw a strange looking jet and a small helicopter. The jet landed but the copter just hovered over the landing pad before a man burst out of the canopy and somehow passed in between the blades of the copter's rotors. He did an acrobatic spin and then landed in a low crouch. As he rose they got a good look at his face. And he looked like a Viking. "Hello," he said " My name is Bud Hansen." as he spoke he made his way over to Pyrrha he flashed her a ten-gigawatt smile while holding out his hand. " And you must be…"

He was cut off as Luke stepped in between the two of them and shoved his own hand into Bud's before finishing Bud's sentence "the mother of my child"

Bud's hand seemed to magically teleport his hand to the back of his neck as he back away from Luke while seriously saying " Sorry, my bad. Won't happen again"

Nobody could tell whether it was being named the mother of his child or if it was the way that Luke got very defensive very fast. But Pyrrha had a face to match her hair.

There was a mildly awkward silence that fell over the group until the rear boarding ramp of the jet open and a man and a woman to emerge from the hull.

"Hello," the other man said " My name is Coby Hansen. This is doctor, Lucy Suzuki. And you have already met my little brother Bud"

This brought much confusion to the teams as the older brother looked to be smaller than his younger brother.

The confusion was forgotten when Bud began to ask Ruby if he was seeing things or if he was looking at the prettiest girl he had ever seen. Ruby not understanding what he meant simply looked around and tried to find someone. "Who do you mean?" she said.

Choosing to run with it Bud pulled out his phone and said "I can show her to you"

"Okay!" Ruby said

Switching his phone over to the selfie camera he turned it around so that she could see herself. "There she is," he said.

Finally realizing that he was trying to flirt with her Ruby fell back onto the advice that Yang had given her about when a boy tried to flirt with her. "Look at this!" she declared as she drew Crescent Rose from behind her and held it out to him. While this would normally dissuade any further attempts to converse with her it only seemed to spur Bud on.

"Whoa, what is that?" he said completely unfazed by the absurd nature of her weapon.

"This is Crescent Rose," Ruby said.

"Can I hold her?" he said unaware of how much Ruby loved her weapon.

"Sure," she said holding her baby out a little further.

"Okay," bud said "come to papa." in saying this he was completely unaware of the way that Ruby called the weapon her baby. And was unknowingly thrusting himself into the confusing world that was the family ruby had constructed around herself and her weapons. After a few moments of handling the weapon and giving the scythe form a few testing spins he returned it to its rightful owner. "Here you go baby, go to momma"

By now everyone but Yang was highly amused and Yang was dispensing silent judgment upon the boy while taking care to remember that he was Coby's younger brother and that he may not be that old. Still, she was planning to give him the [hurt my sister and die] speech once she got the chance.

They would have stood there and continued to watch the two weapon geeks keep acting all cute but Coby knew that they needed to get to work. " which way is the armory, we need to get to work"

When Bud didn't seem to hear his brother and continued to talk about weapons with Ruby Coby decided to get his little brothers attention by quickly throwing an arm around his brother and forcing him into a headlock.

They stayed there for about three seconds before Bud began to speak. "Hey, Coby what is Lori going to do when she hears you were looking down the blonde's shirt.?"

The question was answered in part with words and in part by tightening the lock around Bud's head. "Seeing as I wasn't and Lori isn't here I don't think she is going to do anything."

It seemed as though they would have stayed like this indefinitely until a new voice entered the mix. This one was female and was clearly angry. "COBY HANSEN! What did your brother just say.?"

Recognizing the danger that an enraged female possessed Coby turned much of his focus to her and unintentionally loosened his grip on his brother. " Now Lori, are you going to believe what you heard Bud say or what I... "

He was cut off by his brother who suddenly yelled " METALLIKATO BENCH THROW" then in one swift movement he brought his left leg behind his brother's right leg and slammed his left elbow into his brother's gut. This resulted in Coby being thrown over Bud's knee and landing on his back. "HAHAHA" Bud yelled as he grabbed Ruby's hand and ran off in the direction that he assumed was the way to the armory.

Once he was back on his feet Coby was being vocally assaulted by the newcomer who was a girl about Coby's age. She was wearing a black t-shirt with a red symbol on the front of it and a pair of shorts that seemed a little too short. "Coby were you just staring at that woman's breasts!"

It was a question but it seemed more like a statement that she was making as opposed to an inquiry.

"I did not. And what would your father say about your clothes." by now the two of them were involved in a full force screaming match with one another. And the two teams calmly showed the Doctor to the armory so that they could start the investigation what they didn't know was that they were being watched the whole time.

Jorge gave a small laugh as he saw the two teens keep yelling back and forth. They would have moved past the anger and kissed already but Jorge made certain that they never made it that close. He did this to in his words " prolong the period of adorable mutual hatred.

Those two aside Jorge knew that this was going to be an interesting investigation.


	2. Chapter 2

After Coby and Lori finally made their way to the armory. (with the help of a couple of students) they saw all of the gear for the mission laid out on a large stone table. Dr. Suzuki was already at work and had taken the firearms apart as well as the comms gear. When Coby checked the part of the table that the climbing gear was laid across. This was where he would have expected to find his brother. While Bud was a jokester he was still a competent climber and could spot a faulty part from a lightyear away. ( an act he once performed over a video conference from Cybertron to Earth ). In spite of it being his forte, Bud was absent. As was Ms. Rose. now Coby began to wonder how long it would be until her sister noticed that she had disappeared with his brother. That would not be his problem. Just his revenge for sicking Lori on him.

"Where is Ruby?" Yang said realizing that her baby sister was not here.

"Last time I saw her she was running off with that other blonde guy, the one who looks like a Viking," Nora said blissfully unaware of the monster she may have just unleashed. For while Yang was being patient with her anger and wasn't going to rip Bud's throat out on the spot she still needed to have a very serious talk with him. After which she would most likely judge him unfit for her baby sister and tell him to get lost if he valued his testicles.

"I think they were heading towards the gardens," Pyrrha said. While she wasn't unaware of Yang's rage she did somewhat share it.

"I'll go find them," Jaune stated as he headed for the door. He was very aware that Yang choose to follow him but he did not care. If Bud was found doing anything that would warrant Yang's really rather wrathful rage then so be it. Yang seemed calm but those who knew her also knew that she was not flaring up yet in order for it to have a greater effect when she did.

Jaune was the first one to reach the gardens and once he opened the gate and stepped inside he closed it behind him almost as fast as he could. Unfortunately, it wasn't fast enough and Yang was in the garden. Jaune needed to act fast if he wanted to keep the delicate ecosystem that was the Beacon gardens.

There before them laying against a tree were Bud and Ruby. Bud had his left arm up behind his head and Ruby seemed to fit a little too perfectly into the slot that this made. They both lounged there and were feeding each other orange slices. Slices they were carving with their respective weapons. Ruby was somehow using her scythe to cut small pieces of oranges and Bud was using a strange tonfa style blade that like an ordinary pocket knife folded into a slot that ran along the underside of his forearms.

Understanding that while Bud did need to be spoken to Yang was going to skip straight to the kill, kill, kill part Jaune needed to act fast and keep Yang from igniting her hair in a garden of highly flammable, and highly prized flora.

Jaune brought his right hand up in a violent backfist to Yang's jaw. This, in turn, lifted her chin enough for him to tiger punch her in the throat and then slam his right palm into her left ear. It would hurt like hell and she would be angry for days but it was the only way he could think to shock her entire body long enough for him to throw her in the nearest coy pond. Now that Yang was stunned and off balance Jaune to grab her in a fireman's carry and throw her into a pond. He thought that this would be the end of it but he soon learned that no good deed went unpunished.

…

Bud was strangely happy. He and Ruby had tried to find the armory but ended up getting lost and ended up in the gardens. But that was alright. After all, Coby and Dr. Suzuki were the smart ones he was just an adventurer. They would be fine without him there. Soon he and Ruby were relaxing by a tree. He didn't know when she ended up with a handful of mandarin oranges. she was soon trying to cut one up with her scythe. A sight that Bud could only laugh at. After all the years of traveling the cosmos (a little under four to be exact), he had seen some odd weapons. From Backstop and his horn to Metroplex and his ax. All the way to time he meet a man who claimed to have weaponized a spork, a plastic spork no less. All of that and he had never seen anything that was quite like the sight of this girl and her oversized gardening tool. On top of all of this, he just had this feeling about her. He couldn't explain it but he knew he wanted more of whatever it was. So this lead to him flipping out one of his tonfas in order to cut one of the miniature oranges into several slices. He offered to share them with her and soon enough they had finished the first one. When it came time to cut the next one she waved him off and after a bit more thought she managed to successfully sever the small fruit into many slices. Then she took one and handed it to Bud. Bud then tried to put the sliced flora into his mouth while simultaneously bringing his left arm behind his head. However, he had forgotten that he still had the blades extended and quickly shot his left hand back in order to not cut his own neck by accident. This did, however, result in him dropping the orange chunk he had been given. thankfully, however, Ruby caught it while giving off a small giggle at the antics of her mildly clumsy companion.

"Let me help," she said as she held the orange out to him. After a brief moment he opened his mouth and she gently placed the fruit inside. Bud had eaten a wide variety of oranges. They were his favorite fruit after all and even his favorite flavor of soda. But in that moment the one slice of fruit she feed him left them all behind while it still moved on at a speed that seemed to exceed light itself. He returned the favor and cut an orange before he held a slice before her own closed mouth. With a slight blush, Ruby opened her mouth and Bud gingerly set the small wedge into her mouth. She closed and began to chew. The smile that spread across her face told Bud she had the same reaction as he did. In all the days to come, he would never forget that smile.

Soon they were both reclined against the tree. Ruby laying against Bud's side as they continued to feed one another oranges. Though neither one could explain it their current situation simply seemed right. And so they stayed there. But all good things must come to an end and this one came to a swift one when a couple who Bud had assumed were boyfriend and Girlfriend simply by the way they walked started to fight the second they were in the garden perimeter. The boyfriend blindsided the girl and after three brutal cheap shots, he threw her into one of the ponds. This was something he couldn't allow to go on.

"He dirtbag," he said as he grabbed the man by his right shoulder. While his left hand turned the man to face him his right hand was already in the act of hooking around and making a beeline for this scumbag's head. He was however countered seamlessly with a hard elbow to the jaw while his other hand dropped under his arm and made his entire side explode in pain when it landed a vicious punch to his kidney. Next, his foe dropped under his arm and as he slipped past Bud he drove his left knee into bud gut. Now Bud was afraid if he lost then this man may attack Ruby and he could not allow that. Taking the chance to throw a hail mary attack he dropped his upper body down as he twisted shoulders so that he was in the act of having his right side facing the ground to having his left side face the ground. As he turned his shoulders he also twisted his hips and brought his right leg up in a kick that landed cleanly on the side of his enemy's head. While his foe staggered back Bud quickly got to his feet and took a fighting stance. Out of the corner of his eye, bud saw Ruby run to the woman who had been attacked and this relieved Bud as it meant she wasn't trying to get involved in this fight. Then he felt his opponents right hand connect with his nose and he felt it break. Bud quickly returned his focus to the fight that was at hand and did so in time to see a sliding kick to the inside of his right knee that landed just on the side of his kneecap. He was thrown up and into the air in one swift motion. He landed in a heap on the ground and the last thing he saw was his enemy's boot rapidly falling towards his head in an ax kick

…

Ruby was in tears. The guy she was happily eating oranges with less than a minute ago was now lay unconscious on the ground. She had run over to him and began to try to wake him by shaking him and softly calling his name. But it was to no avail he was completely out. Then she felt him moving and looked to see Jaune dragging Bud over to the pond that Yang was finally coming out of. The mere sight of Jaune caused a fire to ignite in Ruby's stomach. This was his fault. If Jaune and Yang hadn't been fighting then bud would still be okay.

"Let go of him!" Ruby's voice was less of an angry tone and more of a glass shattering screech. When Jaune seemed to have ignored her she cried out once more. "Let go of him you monster" even as she said the words she knew she would regret them. This whole stupid problem was happening because of a misunderstanding. Jaune thought that Yang would burst into flames in the garden if she saw her and Bud eating oranges together. So he decided to strike preemptively in order to limit the amount of fire damage that was done. However, Bud didn't know Jaune and didn't really know Yang so he just saw some guy beating up a girl. Then he tried to help and just got hurt for his effort.

"Let him go," she screamed once more. But to no avail, Jaune kept moving ever closer to the pond. Then she realized why. He was going to kill Bud by drowning him. It was at this time that Ruby began to think that while Jaune may not have wanted the gardens to be burned he may still want to kill Bud for the same reasons as began to try and fight Jaune only to be dismissively blocked and gentle set aside. When she tried to kick him again he calmly grabbed her by the leg and carried her over to a tree he then pinned her cape to the tree and left her to dangle four inches off the ground. thankfully her cape was modified to loop around her armpits so she wouldn't be strangled by the action. She pulled and pulled on the knife that held her cape to the tree but it did her no good as the blade wouldn't saw Jaune finish dragging Bud to the pond and she felt the tears flow anew. Her cries to stop had become nothing more than a unintelligible wail of distress. That too ceased when she saw Jaune swiftly dunk Bud into the pond before yanking him back out coughing and sputtering. Then Jaune carried Bud over to the tree were Ruby was hanging out and dropped him on the ground before pulling out the knife holding Ruby's cape while saying. " I thought you might want to drop by."

Ruby couldn't believe it Jaune had just beaten up her friend and was now making jokes about it. She didn't have to seeth for long as she saw her sister rising from the pond. Normally the steam that was rolling off her hair in a constant wave would concern her but right now Ruby was hoping that the anger would be focused on June and that she would get to watch Yang beat the crap out of him.

"Jaune what did you…" she was cut off by a sudden "Pfft". Slowly she turned to look behind her and there sticking out of the back of her right thigh was a small dart. She stared at it for a moment before all at once collapsing to the grass in a heap. When they followed the trajectory of the dart back to its source they saw Jorge standing thirty feet away with a CASACOM in his hands.

"Hello children," he said as he made his way over to Yang's sleeping body. In one practiced movement, he reached down and plucked the dart from her thigh. "Jaune before you ask. This dart and the others you will find in the trunk in the safehouse Saint lead you to contain a highly potent sedative. In order to avoid going into details that you don't want to hear. The short of it is that there is no way to OD somebody with these. Because they contain micro bacteria that generate the sedative. And I designed the bacteria to eat the sedative once it reaches a certain concentration and to maintain that concentration. The best part is that the bacteria measure the concentration not volume so it can in theory work on most anybody. That being said they are ludicrously expensive to make so don't use them lightly. You have one full mag of them and if you need more just let me know." with that Jorge calm started to walk away before stopping and realizing the children needed some kind of explanation. " back when team STRQ still existed Tai and Raven had major anger control problems so I made these and gave a bunch to Summer for when one of them got out of hand"

Jaune calmly picked up Yang and went over to Bud and Ruby "let's get back to the armory." they rose and with Ruby's help, Bud managed to make his way to the armory. Once they were there Jaune passed Yang off to Pyrrha and grabbed Bud from Ruby before he told her that he needed to have a word with young Mr. Hansen. Ruby wanted to argue but Jaune's words left no such room. She reluctantly left Bud alone with Jaune.

"Listen well Hansen" Jaune said as he pressed Bud up against the wall and ground his knee into Bud's side. "That little girl in there is practically my sister. As such if you ever hurt her I will beat the Hell so far out of you that saint Peter mistakes you for the Messiah and then I'm gonna beat all the Hell back into you so that Peter personally send you straight to Hell for impersonating God. at which point you will have been returned to me because once that happens I am Hell and you will be my only resident."

With the requisite speech given Jaune released Bud to go and join his brother in the armory. As they stepped into the armory they were created by Coby who had just finished checking the remaining detonators.

"Jaune" Coby said " only Weiss's detonators were sabotaged. And the work that was done to them while exceptionally simple was in fact done to a masterful level. Only someone who had a very, very extensive background in explosives. And even then they would need access to the gear and a reason to hate you."

Naturally, everyone looked at Weiss as it was her family that made the detonators so she could have someone rig them to fail. And she didn't like Jaune back when this all happened.

Jaune had only one question for the time being. "So, who oversaw the preparation and security of my team's gear."

Looking at the logs Luke stated that the page pertaining to the three days leading up to the operation were removed.

"Well then," Jaune said "this leaves us with a new problem then. Cause there is only a short list of people who could do this and most of them are on my team.. Luke pull up the list of all students who are proficient with explosives and cross it with the list of student armorers"

After a moment of searching Luke had a name "Chad Hajullaf" he said. " he was the armorer who was volunteering when the team's gear was being prepped. His file shows that he is an outspoken anti-Faunus protester. And he would have had no reason to sabotage the gear as we were going to attack a White Fang base. He has no motive."

Jaune knew that Chad a rigged the gear but he couldn't tell why. "I am going to talk to him. Where can I find him."

Luke looked back to his datapad and tapped a few times before he turned his head back to Jaune and said: "he is in the secondary armory, he is next door."

Jaune thought for a moment before saying " everyone needs to return to their dorms." the looking to the tech experts he said " you four can go wherever you want as long as it is within reason. I just advise that you leave this wing and stay away for a few hours." everyone filed out in an orderly fashion and left Jaune to tend to his thoughts. As he wandered about the armory he selected a grenade that he knew of. It was a flashbang grenade. It contained a binary charge that was set to go off one almost instantly after the other. The outer charge was composed of lightning and air dust. It would provide the flash and the inner core was pressurized fire and air dust. When THAT charge went off the fire dust would superheat the air dust and under the pressure, the inner core's container was designed to withstand would lead the air dust to split on a molecular level. This would in effect cause a flash of lightning and a crack of thunder in the room. It was effective against aura protected people and was cataclysmically desolating on an unprotected person. So far no one who had been caught by one had ever seen or heard again. It had two words written on the side of it shining thunder. It seemed fitting for its purpose. As he kept walking he noticed that everyone forgot about Yang who was still peacefully sleeping in a chair. Worrying that she may have some type of hearing damage from what he was about to do Jaune placed a pair of ear protectors on Yang's head. Then he made his way to the adjacent armory he used another piece of gear he took from the armory. A small flexible fiber-optic camera. They were commonly called snake cams for their ability to snake in and around corners and under doors.

By running the camera under the door Jaune saw that Chad was in the armory alone and that he was working on at an edge grinder so that he can sharpen some manner of a blade. Grinning Jaune opened the door more four inches and tossed in two of the shining thunders and closed the door. There were two deafening booms and Jaune as he drew his revolver Jaune only had one thought before he began his interrogation. "I haven't done a job like this since Durant."


	3. Chapter 3

Chad couldn't really remember what happened. He was in the armory working on his team leader's knife. That was when his world seemed to explode. Now the only thing that he could see was a man in a trench coat and a stetson that was being held on his head by a chin strap. "ANSWER ME YOU PIECE OF SHIT" the man yelled as he threw a punch that landed on the body of someone else. The other man was tired to a chair with a bag over his head. "ANSWER ME" after a few more punches the man in the chair seemed to go limp. His attacker cussed under his breath and turned back to look behind Chad "Jorge bring us up to 450 feet." Chad was confused as he felt himself move like he was going up in an elevator. When they stopped moving the man in the Stetson walked over to the far side of the small room they were in. upon reaching the other side in four small strides he used his fist to smash a button. With a hiss, the back wall of the room began to slowly fall down and Chad came to the terrifying realization that he was in a bullhead. Once the door was fully open the man raised his revolver and fired three times into the chest of the man in the chair. The now very dead man fell out of the back of bullhead chair and all. Then the man closed the bay door and turned back to him. Now that he saw his face clearly Chad could see that it was Jaune Arc. and his heart stopped in his chest. He had tried to cause the death of one of his team members. Chad's employer didn't say why they wanted the detonators sabotaged. They just wanted it done.

"I don't know what happened. I just rigged a detonator." Chad knew that he sounded pitiful but this man just shot someone out of the back of the plane and now he was looking at Chad. looking with the same emotionless face.

"I didn't ask you what happened, but now I want to know why you rigged the detonators.?" Jaune's tone was cold. It held no promise of freedom or pain. It was just cold. "Do I need to ask you a second time?" he said his voice rising slightly

"No, no I don't know why I did it." he knew it was a bad lie but it was the best he could come up with.

"Chad, Chad, Chad do I need to open the door?" Chad violently shook his head no. 'Then tell me WHY THE HELL YOU TRIED TO KILL ME"

"I don't know why. That's all I can tell you." Chad was getting a grip on himself. He had heard about some of the things Jaune Arc is said to have done in Durant. Of course, everything he did was done under the name of Bowdrie. But when you looked at Bowdrie's record then you saw crime scene photos that could make a Grimm lose its lunch. It was because this record that Chad knew he was not likely to live through this day. But that meant that he could still protect her.

Jaune looked into Chad's eyes for a time before he said "what do they have on you?" the question was softer than the other two. "You aren't going to convince me you did this for shits and giggles so what do they have over you.?"

Chad thought for a time before he answered " they have photos of me and Georgia Sanders having sex"

This was a shock for Jaune as Georgia Sanders was a tiger Faunus. " then why do you always attend the anti-faunus protest?" he asked.

Chad looked ashamed for a moment before he looked up at Jaune and said. "If our families found out that we were together they would kill us both"

He was telling the truth of course. Jaune knew that he had no reason to lie. For all that Chad knew he was dead no matter what he said. Jaune made certain this was the only thought Chad could come to. The first thing Jaune let him see was Jaune killing someone. Chad knew what Jaune had done in Durant and he knew that Jaune could very easily find out about Georgia and that he was less likely to hurt her if Chad was honest.

Jaune looked into Chad's eyes before Jaune's own eyes softened "Jorge, bring us back to Beacon" Jaune cut the zip ties that held Chad to the chair he was in and then sat next to him.

"What the hell is wrong with you. You just killed a man" Chad screamed at the apparent lunatic that was sitting next to him.

Jaune seemed confused for a moment before he registered what Chad had said. "Oh, that you mean that guy?" he said as he gestured out the rear door of the bullhead. Chad nodded vigorously and Jaune offered a wry smile while saying " that was a serial rapist who was gonna walk on a technicality of the law. Jorge had a friend who wanted to kill him and didn't want to deal with body disposal. So Vale got rid of a serial rapist, Jorge's friend was able to kill that guy, and I got the answers. Don't worry Chad. I'm not gonna kill you. And I won't tell anyone about Georgia. But, if you ever hit her I will kill you. Or worse I will turn you over to her family."

…

Jaune had just returned to the armory with Yang over his shoulders in a fireman's carry. He had just dropped Chad off. Not at school but at a motel that Jaune choose to not look at the sign of as he didn't want to be able to tell anyone where they went. But when he saw the way Chad was adjusting his hair Jaune understood who he was meeting.

This lead to Jaune returning to the armory in order to return the keys to the bullhead he borrowed. Once he put the keys back where they belong he went back to team RWBY's dorm and was about to open the door when a thought occurred to him. Yang was still out cold and if he understood Jorge's explanation of the tranquilizer correctly Yang was going to stay like this until the bacteria died. Pulling out his scroll Jaune dialed Jorge's number.

"Jorge, the tranq you used on Yang. what is the lifespan of those things.?"

Jorge gave a slightly unnerving laugh before responding " They don't wear off. The drugs aren't their own thing the dart administers the bacteria that make the drugs. The lifespan of the tranqs is irrelevant the bacteria are like a metaphorical factory. The only way your girlfriend is coming out of her CIC or chemically induced coma is if you administer the antibiotics that I left in the safehouse.."

Before Jaune could respond to Jorge the line went dead. Giving off a tired sigh Jaune contemplated the options before him. He could take Yang with him and go to the safe house or he could leave her here and go to the safehouse and get the antibiotics before coming back. And giving them to Yang.

He was still trying to figure out what he should do when his scroll rang. He answered it and then instantly regretted it as it was Weiss. "ARC WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU. IF YOU AREN'T IN THE DORMS INSIDE OF TEN SECOND THEN I AM GOING TO…" she was cut off when Jaune dropped the call and began to carry Yang towards the armory to get the keys to the bullhead.

Jaune had just made it halfway to the safehouse when he noticed that he was being followed. It was a long walk to the safehouse so Jaune left Yang at the docks with a pilot who he trusted. Then he borrowed a car from the police impound. It may not have been legal but he was going to return it once he got Yang to the safehouse. He just couldn't be seen carrying an unconscious woman through the streets. It would draw far too much attention if he did. This leads him back to the car that was following him through town. It was a very standard car but instead of a license plate it had what looked like a plate but the wording was gibberish and the numbers were not oriented properly there was a seven and a five and both were backward. The whole thing screamed last minute low quality work. They probably just used a piece of sheet metal and paint in order to make a fake license plate. It was either done by someone with a sense of humor or by someone who was illiterate. Jaune guessed it was an illiterate fool as he was about as easy to spot as a Schnee in a room full of Grimm. This lead Jaune to lose the tail by driving in a circle and when the other car was stopped at a red light Jaune got out and calmly lobbed a flashbang into the back seat. If his pursuers didn't have aura they would be dissuaded and if they did then they would still be flashbanged. It may not have the same effect as a shining thunder grenade but it would still suck. It would suck long enough for him to get away and lose them. Sure enough, it did. the car was temporarily engulfed in light and the windows were blown out. This would provide him more than enough time to drive about four blocks away. He still drove terrible in order to force any tails to show themselves. Thankfully they didn't. When he made it to the safe house he carried Yang inside and locked the door as he left to drop the car off at the impound. It was a joke how easy it was to break into the place. When he returned to the safe house he found Yang were he left her and then he went into the trunk and true to his word Jorge had left about forty-eight syringes that looked more like EpiPens than syringes. The attached note explained that the antibiotic was easier to make so Jorge gave Jaune two mags worth. Jaune went over to Yang and injected the contents into Yang's thigh near were Jorge shot her. He wondered how long it would take for Yang to come out of her coma when her eyes slowly opened.

"Jaunee," she said her voice slightly slurring " where, what, and why does my head hurt?"

Jaune knew what she was asking so he answered "my safehouse in Vale, Jorge, and that happens when you get tranqed" he was expecting her to be angry but instead, she gave him a passive look and said

"Next time I see Jorge, I gonna kill him," Yang said as she rose to her feet and almost fell only to be caught by Jaune.

"Yang, you need to rest the drugs clearly haven't fully worn off." she looked like she wanted to argue until Jaune slightly loosened his grip on her and she almost hit the floor. Relenting and allowing him to lead her to the bedroom he set her on the bed before he turned to leave.

"Jaune please don't go" Jaune felt his blood run cold as he heard her voice.

"What is wrong Yang?" Jaune said trying to find a way to talk his way out of whatever she was planning.

"I don't want to be alone" was the answer that she offered him.

After thinking for a moment Jaune found a way to satisfy her request and still maintain his morality about sleeping with a slightly high teammate. He walked over to the couch and dragged it over to the side of the bed. Looking at the clock he saw that it was almost midnight. Thinking of the teams who may be waiting for him to return with Yang he sent Ruby and Pyrrha a group text saying

 _Yang and I are stuck in Vale. staying at a safe location. Turning off my scroll so don't respond_

He knew that he might have hell to pay for that when he went back to Beacon tomorrow. But to be frank he just didn't care at the moment he was tired and he just wanted to sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

"AAARRRGGGHHH" BANG!. Yang shot upright in the bed she was sleeping in and looked at the source of the blood-curdling yell and deafening gunshot. She saw Jaune sitting up on the couch where he was sleeping. He was drenched with sweat and had a gun in his hand. Then next thing she noticed was the hole in the mirror that Jaune had just shot. When she looked back to Jaune she saw that he had a look that could only be described as pure fear in his eyes.  
"Jaune," she said as she rose from the bed where she was sleeping and very gently slid the web between her thumb and forefinger in front of the hammer of the revolver. That way if the trigger was pulled she could keep the gun from going off. "Give me the gun Micheal" she knew she was saving the use of his middle name for an important moment but this seemed important enough. Sure enough, he let the gun go. Yang quickly set the gun down on the table beside her bed. She then turned her attention back to Jaune. She had only heard of this kind of nightmare. The closest she had ever come was the look on Jaune's face which was unnervingly similar to the face she had seen her father make after Summer had passed.

"I think I need to go for a walk" Jaune said as he attempted to get to his feet only to be pulled to the bed by Yang who wrapped her arms around him and said.

"No, the last thing you need is to go and wander around the streets of Vale at this time of night." she knew that he wouldn't be willing to just stay because she said so. As such, she had two ways she could try to keep him her and she was going to try the more direct method first.  
Hoping that he wouldn't have the will to fight with her Yang shifted to Jaune's back and hooked her heels around his knees in order to make it harder to stand. This was quickly countered when Jaune spun around and was now in Yang's guard. Yang then hoped that since her first plan had failed she tried her next and last plan. Swiftly she wrapped her arms around him again and said

"Jaune" as she spoke Yang stopped hiding the fear that was running through her. "Please, don't go." Yang knew that if she tried to keep him here by force that Jaune could escape with relative ease. So she made him think that she needed him to stay so that she would be afraid of whatever had scared her. Whether it was the thought of him wandering the streets without a clear mind or if it was just the nerves of having a gun fired less than five feet from her. In truth, Yang didn't know what scared her only that at that moment she was terrified.

Once she felt Jaune stop trying to fight her Yang relaxed and spoke once more. "Jaune, what is wrong. What did you see."  
Jaune seemed to think for a moment before he shook his head and told her that it was nothing and that he would be fine. When he tried to go back to the couch Yang held on as tightly as she could. Understanding her meaning and knowing that she didn't believe his story Jaune once again seemed to concede to Yang's demand and he settled down on the bed. Yang looked back at the clock that was placed on the bedside table that she had placed the gun on it said that it was almost three in the morning. She knew that she would need to talk to someone about this but that was a matter for tomorrow. Tonight her only concern was the man who was trying for all his worth to not show how scared he was. Whatever he had seen it had been bad enough for him to wake up and instantly shoot the only thing moving as fast as him. The irony was that it was his own reflection but that could be pondered by someone more philosophical than her. And was to be pondered at a much more reasonable time than 2:55 am.

Returning her focus to the man who was no somewhere between asleep and awake she to settled down in the bed hoping to sleep moderately well in spite of the way every nerve in her body was running haywire after the gunshot. As she drifted off to sleep she allowed her mind to wander as to who she should talk to about this. Among her last thoughts was the name of the teacher she should go to tomorrow.

Oobleck was confused, to say the least. Never before had he seen a student dragging their team leader to professor Port AFTER the professor's class was over. He knew that there were only a few reasons for this scenario to take place. And the one he suspected was that mister Arc was not sleeping well and that he had woken Miss Xiao Long up at least once. Now he refused to speculate how it was that Miss Xiao Long was awakened by Mister Arc but Bartholomew made a point of not looking to deep into the private lives of his students. Truly the only way that such an occurrence could take place would be if he felt it was in the best interest of the student mental health that he begins to snoop. And it just so happened that he did decide that Mister Arcs case was in fact on such case. Mister Arc had been distracted in class and wasn't holding the averages he uses to as such Oobleck looked into the reports he turned into Headmaster Ozpin after his several month long excursion in Vacuo and after reading through it Oobleck understood why Mister Arc had chosen to lie to his team about the actual happenings. It was brutal, to say the least of it. However, since he seemed to be talking to Peter then Bartholomew decided he could drop the worries as He would have only referred Mister Arc to the eccentric professor. It was a lesser known fact about the portly professor but he was a very skilled counselor. Especially in the case of huntsmen and women who have seen far too much battle and if Mister Arc's report was to be believed then he had seen more battle by the age of seventeen then many hunters may ever see. It was still a mystery how the professor did it all Bartholomew knew was that he did.

Yang didn't know the details of what professor Port spoke to Jaune only that it involved the very nature of right and wrong. And a yellow construction vehicle referred to as Landmine. She could understand the point of the first conversation but she had no idea the purpose of the other one. All she could tell was that it seemed to help Jaune. He had a far more chipper personality and he explained that professor Port may seem to be short-sighted at first but that he was, in fact, a very deep thinker.

Jaune knew that Yang wouldn't believe him if he told her what he and professor Port talked about so he simply put on a happy face and told her that they got philosophical and that Port asked about the construction truck that no one had seen yet. In truth Port and just shared war stories. Only this time Port didn't water down the details of the men he had lost and the lives he had taken. They shared and came to a few universal points about the good and bad of taking a life out of this world. They discussed the way that life is much easier to take than to give. After all, any single person could take a life but only by two people becoming one could they bring a new life into this world. Even then it was only a new life. Once a life was taken it could no longer be given. And that was something most warriors had long since come to terms with. There was a joke that was made by the professor about how it was Romerean's policy that those who take lives were obligated to try their best to kindle new lives. That did explain fact that Romerean had eight children. They discussed other matters as well but those were not the focus of Jaune's thought process. They had just entered the cafeteria in an attempt to eat lunch when Jaune found himself on the receiving end of the very wrath that had driven them to the armory when the experts arrived.

"Arc you inconsiderate bully, after what you did to Bud I should feed you to Scourge" Lori was in the process of going up one side of Jaune and down the other. She had found out about the beating that Bud obtained at Jaune's hands. She would have kept on going but Coby had jumped in.

"Lori, did you just say Scourge?" upon the completion of his sentence Lori instantly went from the embodiment of rage to a deer in the headlights.

"Well, I had to get here somehow didn't I," Lori said as she seemed to shy away in order to avoid making contact with Coby Hansen's eyes which were filled with anger.

"Lori, you and I need to have a very serious discussion. IN PRIVATE." at the end of the statement, they walked off to one of the other wings to have that discussion.

"What was that about?" Yang asked. She had no real memory of the fight between Jaune and Bud. after all she spent most of it nearly out cold in the fountain after the devastating salvo of strikes Jaune threw and once she got out of the fountain Jorge tranqed her. All in all, Yang had nearly no memory of the whole experience.

The next to speak was Bud who had a bandage on his nose, a brace on his knee, and a massive bruise on the side of his jaw. "Jaune may have beaten the rust out of me after I saw you two fight."

"What do you mean after you saw us fight" Yang was confused she honestly had no memory of what happened and she hadn't taken the time to think about it.

"Well," Bud said. "After you found me and Ruby in the garden. Your team leader seemed to think that you were not going to take it well so he chooses to strike first and ask later. And after two folks I didn't really know were seen getting into a fight with your boyfriend suddenly beating you senseless I felt as though I needed to step in and I paid a very handsome price for it."

it was at this time that Bud moved his right leg in just the wrong way and winced in pain before he almost fell to the ground. When all was said and done the only thing that kept him upright was the little red reaper that magically materialized under his arm.

"Now Bud we talked about this, no more walking without me there until the doctor clears you," she said this with a face that seemed to be equal parts annoyance and concern. "Come on," she said either completely ignorant of Yang's presence of electing not to care as she continued with "let's go lay down for a little while you have been pushing yourself too hard you know"

As they limped off in the direction of the team RWBY dorm Yang seemed to have her mind catch up with the rest of her.  
"Wait what did I see and what happened to me?" Yang was more than a little confused. She had still not yet processed the Let's that Ruby had spoken and that was obvious to Jaune because she still had yet to burst into a ball of flame.

Next to speak was Nora who had compiled a series of events that Jaune was sure made total sense to her but was akin to what you would expect to hear at the end of a game of telephone.

"You walked in on Jaune and Bud making love and had to fight Ruby for the right to challenge Jaune or Bud for the love of the other. And when the fighting was done Bud had beaten you but had attacked your hair in the process in order to keep you from damaging the garden Bud's helicopter which is actually a transforming robot shot you with a tranquilizer dart and tried to sell you to one of Jorge's old friends for trying to attack Bud but Jaune heroically stopped them from selling you. However, in doing such Jaune received a grave injury and had to be tended to by the jet which was also a transforming robot. And then…" her extensive run on the statement was cut short once again by Ren wrapping his arms around her. He was able to translate the gibberish that Nora was spouting however he was admirable curious as to Yang's reaction to Nora's tale as it seemed very far-fetched.

"So wait, Jaune and Bud were having sex in the gardens?" Yang said more confused than when she started. Nora nodded "and Ruby and me fought each other for the right to fight for Jaune/Bud respectively?" again Nora nodded "I won, and then Bud's helicopter which is, in fact, some manner of transforming robot tranquilized me?" once more Nora nodded. " and then the helicopter tried to sell me to one of Jorge's old associates and Jaune saved me while being injured" Nora continued to nod. " and the jet that brought Coby and the Doctor here which is also a transforming robot saved Jaune." when Nora kept nodding Yang tried and failed to fight back a smile as she looked to Ren and asked. "What actually happened?"

Ren took a moment to collect his thoughts and then said " you saw Ruby and Bud cuddling in the gardens and were about to burn the garden down by accident. In an attempt to avoid explaining the fire damage to Ms. Goodwitch Jaune attempted to stun you with strikes long enough to get you out of the garden. Bud saw this and did not know who Jaune was and assumed he was just an abusive boyfriend and then tried to fight him. He was quickly dispatched by Jaune and was given a handful of injuries including a dislocated knee, two cracked ribs, a broken nose, and a severe concussion. All things considered, he did very well for someone who had no aura."

At the end of Ren's explanation of the things she didn't remember she nodded and gave Ren a simple thank you and when she opened her mouth to speak she fully realized what Ruby had said. "Did Ruby just say "Let's" as in plural. As in both of them in the same bed"

Jaune could feel the anger flow over Yang and decided that this time he wasn't going to try and stop her. This one was on Ruby.


	5. Chapter 5

Lori was furious. She had just been arguing with Coby about whether or not she should have taken Scourge with her to Remnant when she had stormed had been gone for no more than four minutes. Once she came back to the room where she had left Coby after their fight only to find him bloody and beaten. She didn't want to admit why this made her so angry. Sure her friend was hurt but this was a rage that she hadn't felt before. That rage was destroyed the moment she saw he begin to regain consciousness and immediately begin to show signs that he was in a great deal of pain. She dashed over to his side and set his head in her lap as she extracted her phone from her pocket. Searching through the contacts she found Jorge. She pressed dial and waited for a moment before the phone said that her call was being redirected. She didn't know her phone could do that but she was given the phone by Jorge and he did a lot of

things she didn't understand so she just went with it.

"Hello, you have reached Jaune Arc how can I help you?"

"Jaune" Lori managed to say in between shallow breaths "get to the east wing now. Coby has been attacked.

…

Coby awoke in a room that smelled like so much clean that it made his nose burn. His felt his head laying on an unevenly shaped surface. He soon learned that opening his eyes was a massive mistake. The blinding light that flashed in his face forced his eyes shut once more until he was more prepared for it. When he did he saw a face that he would till the end of his days describe only as beautiful. It was Lori and she had somehow positioned herself so that his head was on her lap while he was still in the hospital bed. The last time that he found himself like this was right after everyone nearly died on the way to Gigantion and he saved all of them at the price of taking a very serious electrical pulse that knocked him out then and when he woke up he was also using Lori"s lap as a pillow. This time was different though, this time he didn't want to move he didn't want to celebrate his success. He just wanted to lay here and stare into her eyes. It was at about that time that he had a sudden and terrifying realization. He Coby Hansen lov… loved Lori Jimenez. And that thought scared the Hell out of him. Of all the people that he could fall in love with why would it have to be her. She was annoying and rude and she clearly didn't love him.

"What happened? Do you know who attacked you?" the one asking questions was Jaune but Coby had only one thing on his mind. She might never forgive him and it would ruin his friendship. But if he didn't do it now he may never get the chance to. He had seen it too many times. His brother once had such a friend. He had loved her and he wasted every chance he had because he was afraid. Coby had seen the way that it had eaten his brother alive. Coby was certain of one thing he wasn't going to make his brother's mistake. He was either going to find out that Lori loved him or he was going to never speak to her again. Either way, they would never see each other the same after this.

In one swift movement (meant more to keep himself from trying to back out) Coby quickly grabbed Lori by the back of the head and kissed her as lovingly as he could. To say that his entire worldview on not just Lori but women as a whole was changed irreparably in that moment was an understatement. As he pulled away he looked back into Lori's eyes and said "Lori, I now know that I love you, I think I have known for years now. But I can no longer lie to myself. I know that you might not like let alone love me but I need to know once and for all. I fear not knowing more than I fear being rejected so whatever you have to say just say it. I can handle it. It will be okay. I mean it…"

Lori giggled slightly to herself and proceed to stop Coby's constant nervous speaking by kissing him. She would never tell him but the first kiss while shocking in many ways didn't even compare to the second one. That kiss seemed to blow away any amount of love she had ever seen or felt before. In truth it was sitting here holding him that she came to a very similar epiphany. They would have stayed like that for some time and maybe even progressed as far as Coby's injuries would allow but they were interrupted when the nurse rapped her wedding ring on the faucet of the sink. This act filled the room with a very distinctive ringing sound that grabbed everyone's attention.

"There will be no canoodling in my infirmary tonight children," she said as she nodded to Jaune. "Mr. Arc has questions and only you Mr. Hansen have answers so tell him what happened.

Clearing his throat Coby thought back to the incident that had lead to his beating.

…

Coby was furious though at the present time that rage seemed to die out. He was sitting in one of the classrooms and was actively seething. "the one thing she should have known better than to do" Coby said, he was, of course, referring to the giant metal dragon that was hiding somewhere on this planet. He was absolutely beside himself. He knew she would do something like this one day. Now he was going to need to talk to Prime about getting her restricted to certain planets only.

"Well, what have we here? A rabbit wandered too far from its warren"

Coby looked at the source of the words and saw a girl with brown hair and… rabbit-like ears on top of her head. He knew that Jorge said there would be some unusual things but this was not quite what Coby was expecting. That being said Coby still knew an ugly cousin of racism when he saw it. And even though he knew that he probably couldn't do much to help her without getting himself seriously injured he also knew that he couldn't just do nothing.

As he stepped forward he steeled himself for what was to come. "Hey, stupid" he yelled as he began to close the distance between himself and the group that was harassing the student. "Leave her alone and come mess somebody else." he knew that it was a mistake and he knew that he was in for the beating of a lifetime but it was a beating that the scared and now long gone girl wasn't going to be taking.

"Hey guys." the leader said, "I think the blonde brat here wants us to beat him senseless." as she turned she pointed at him with her left index finger as her three rather robust teammates started towards him.

Knowing that his task was done Coby turned to run for his life. He had barely made it five steps when they caught him. In hindsight, he probably should have tried to find a better way to help the person who was being bullied that would not result in him being attacked by a team from a school full of warriors in training. That would have avoided him having three men beating the life out of him. He knew that it was getting bad when he started to lose the feeling of pain in his sides and in his head. He began to worry that they may kill him by accident or on purpose for all he knew. Thankfully he need not worry any longer as someone came to his rescue.

His rescuer was a large man. At least six foot four, and he had to weigh about 300 pounds. All of it seemed to be muscle. With a powerful push kick, he sent one the attacks flying across the room and into the far side wall. The next only had a moment to react and he wasted it by staring confused his friend who had seemed to disappear into thin air. Before he could recover from his shock he two was sent flying this time by a grappling move that seemed vaguely similar to something Coby had once seen Landmine use on Leobreaker in training. This left one man conscious man whom the rescuer simple stared at until he seemed to have a revelation and stared back at him with a look of recognition. They spoke briefly but Coby was losing consciousness due to his long list of concussions. The only words he could make out were spoken by his savior of whom he saw no distinctive features as he never turned his face to see Coby and he was wearing a hoodie with the hood up. "Chad Hajullaf" he didn't know who that was so he assumed that was his rescuer's name. As Coby faded he saw his protector grab him by the arms and lift him fireman's style.

…

"Was Chad the one who helped you?" Lori said. She was trying to figure out who she needed to find and who needed to have a talk with.

"I don't think so," Jaune said speaking for the first time since this discussion about Coby's injuries started. "Describe the man who came to your aid."

Coby took a moment to collect his thoughts and described his ally "about six foot four, maybe six foot six and weighed about 300 pounds he was wearing a grey hoodie. I think he had black pants on. But I could be wrong but I think he was trying to be hard to identify with his clothing choice."

Jaune seemed to think about the details Coby gave him before saying "Chad Hajullaf is about five foot seven. There is no way he was the one who saved you. But I might know who did" Jaune quickly left the two lovebirds to their own machinations under the watchful eye of the head nurse. Turning to the door Jaune left for the gardens where he suspected the one responsible for Coby's salvation may be located.

…

Jaune went to the gardens and searched for the hero from Hansen's story to no avail. Next, he tried to find them in the training room. This lead to no success. Finally, he went to the last place he could think of. The team CVFY dorm room. When he arrived he saw what he figured he would huddled on Velvets bed was the petite rabbit fanus and her very large warrior. He could still remember the favor that he had to do for Velvet in order to get Coco, Fox, and Yats out of Beacon for a week so that she could have a better reason for her current love life for her team when they returned. But she asked nicely and Jaune was one of the few to know what really happened to the two of them while he was in Vacuo. It just so happens that he was the one who rescued them after the White Fang was done tormenting them. Jaune laughed inwardly. It was a humorless laugh as it brought up the memories of a different him. Then he laughed at his own choice of words. While he may have been the one to drag them out of that Hell hole he didn't have to do much fighting. No, Cardin did much of the fighting and killing that day. They made a mistake when they tortured him because they told him that they wouldn't move on to Velvet until they had broken him. And that was what kept him going until they forgot to change the chains that held him in place. It took him days but Cardin managed to fatigue the chains until they broke. Then all he set all of Hell lose on his captors.

They still had yet to notice Jaune. Which was a massive testament to how good Jaune was at not making noise as the two of them were now very light sleepers. Now he kept his laugh internal as to avoid waking them. This laugh was at the absurdity of what was before him. One of the most anti-fanus students was now cuddling one to his chest as though she was the only thing that grounded him in reality. And in all fairness after the mess, he endured she most likely was the only thing that kept him sane. Quietly leaving a thank you card next to the bed Jaune turned and left the young couple to sleep. Looking at his watch he saw that it almost eleven at night. Knowing that he spent too much time at the infirmary waiting for Hansen to wake up Jaune chose to not continue his investigation until tomorrow. As he reached the two dorms that housed his teams he thought about which one he should enter. If he was, to be honest, the system of him going back and forth between dorms feel apart over the break but he still tried to spend some time with team PLNR and team RWBY equally. This night he chose to rack out with team PLNR. He did this in order to avoid whatever drama came when Yang found out that Bud and Ruby were now sharing a bed. After opening the door he saw that as he expected Luke and Pyrrha were asleep in one bed and Ren and Nora were in an another. It was still cute to him how they acted as though no one knew that they were in love but it was so obvious that a blind and deaf-mute could tell.

Sitting down on one of the empty beds Jaune removed his gun from his holster. He knew he wasn't supposed to carry it on school grounds but he was still the official Sheriff of Durant and he used the badge that came with it in order to get certain rights. Such as open and concealed carry on school grounds. Laying on the bed he closed his eyes and allowed sleep to take him into its warm embrace. He had no idea the horrors it had in store for him tonight.

…

Cardin had slept well for most of the night but at around four in the morning, he was pulled from his rest by a dream of the Fang compound. He knew after he did that he would never be able to forget what he had done. The blood and the screams and the bodies. There was no kind of atonement for the lives he had taken. But what was done was done and it did him no good to mourn the lives of the people he had to kill. And he knew that he had to kill them. If he failed to do such they would have been recaptured and then if they were lucky they would have been killed. It was all he could do to tell himself that he wasn't just acting for his own life. If he had failed then the small fanus he now clutched to his chest may have been harmed. This much could be said for the Fang. They didn't lie to him. Because he wouldn't break they chose not to do anything to Velvet. The worst thing she experienced was dehydration combined with the sight of his being tortured and then his rampage. But all things considered, she escaped comparatively unscathed.

After that battle, Cardin was in a dark place. If it wasn't for Velvet he would have done something drastic weeks ago. Now he looked down and he saw Velvet curled at tightly as she could into his chest. He knew that even though he took the worst of the psychological damage she was still there and heard his screams as they slowly carved his chest up. She still saw him kill all of the fanus that were in between them and the exit. After all of that, she still seemed to feel safer with him than alone. It was the only reason that he would share a bed with her at first. He found out from one of the teachers that she wasn't sleeping at night and that she seemed to calm quite a bit when she was in classes that the two of them shared. He started to sit near her in class whenever they could get away from her team. They didn't have to worry about his team as they would listen when he told them to leave him alone. They were afraid of the man who was alleged to have broken someone's neck while he was chained to a wall. That left her team and they both wanted to avoid the threat offered by her team. Cardin was a monster once but after a very important talk with professor Port and then the experience with the White Fang he was far from what he used to be. Knowing that Velvet would sleep well for the rest of the night and knowing that he wouldn't sleep until tomorrow night. he made his way out of bed and went for a walk to clear his head of the dreams that had been assaulting him.

…

Jaune was wandering around the Beacon gardens when he saw Cardin sitting by one of the fountains. The fountain in question was designed to be at its most beautiful when it was seen at night. It was built so that the warriors who had seen far too much blood can find a place of peace and serenity. And here Jaune found someone with whom he shared a unique bond.

"It was one thing to be close to one's friends. But when you have faced the fury of those who wish to end your life and worse. And when someone else stands with you against the tide and draws the blood of the enemy in the defense of you. Then there is a binding between them that will never be broken."

Jaune didn't know when Cardin noticed him but he knew it wasn't important. After all, they were brothers in arms as well as blood now. Both had seen the others darkest of truths and thoughts.

As Jaune sat down next to Cardin he reached into the bag he had carried with him and pulled out two bottles that had no label on them.

"My own brew" Jaune said. Handing Cardin a bottle he watched him examine the bottle before his eyes opened in amusement as he saw that the top was made of glass and was sealed on by glue. Not understand what do with this seemingly unopenable bottle he asked

"There isn't a cap on this. How am I supposed to open it?" Even as Cardin spoke he saw Jaune reach behind his back and draw a large bowie knife. Holding the bottle at an upward angle Jaune placed the blade of the knife on the seam and then angled it about 15 degrees from the bottle like he was planning to sharpen it on the bottle. In one swift motion he ran the knife down the length of the bottle and the moment the blade contacted the point where the seam of the bottle meet with the top it cracked the top off and launched in almost three feet.

"I store them under a great deal of pressure. All it takes is a hard whack on the weakest point of the connection and the top flys right off" as he spoke he spun the knife in his hand and offered it handle first to his larger companion who accepted it and did as Jaune did with the same result.

They sat there and drank for a few minutes before Jaune spoke. I left you a note but I still want to thank you in person. If you didn't step in when you did Hansen may have been killed on accident and while I know Chad's team would only get what they deserve. Well let's just say that Chad and you have more in common than you may think. You should try to talk to him more often."

Cardin's response was what Jaune expected it would be. " I do not know what you are talking about. I did not step in on anything. But if I did then I suppose you may be right. Now, do you have any Idea who went after your team.?"

The question was one that Jaune was also thinking about. " all I know is someone blackmailed Chad into sabotaging Weiss's detonators. The only issue is that it was only her detonators that were tampered with and Chad wouldn't have known which detonators were hers only the team knew that. Which means that whoever did this either knew our plans or they got lucky. And a blackmailer doesn't rely on luck."

"How could they have gotten your plans?" Cardin asked already dreading the answer that he knew was coming.

"There is a leak on one of my teams. And plan to find out who and why."


	6. Chapter 6

**disclamer: cameo appereances include Sandman, Truck, and Grinch from MW3.**

At 7:30 AM team RWBY plus Bud stepped out of their dorm in order to proceed to their first class. They were meet at the door of the room by Jaune who told RWY and Bud to head to class and that he had to talk with Blake in private. After the others, all left for class and Blake went back into her room and sat on her bed with a slight slouch. Jaune closed the door and said.  
"I don't like small talk and neither do you so I will cut to the chase. Someone sold out team Rockslide. It had to be someone on the inside as the precision with which the sabotage was done wouldn't have been a guaranteed success if it wasn't."  
By now Jaune had Blake's full attention. She sat up straighter and looked into Jaune's cold eyes.

"It wasn't Pyrrha, Luke, or Nora. they are all loyal to a fault. And it wasn't Yang or Ruby they are my friends and I doubt Ruby would be able to plan the sabotage. That leaves Weiss and Ren. If I had any real doubts about you we wouldn't be having this conversation."

Blake seemed to be in disbelief. "Do you think Ren has any reason to want you dead?"

"No" Jaune looked away from her and stared out the window at the snow-covered courtyard. " I don't think Ren has any reason to want me dead and I don't think he did it."

"that leaves Weiss," Blake said. Her face seemed to darken in sadness at what this conversation meant for her team.

"No," Jaune said again still staring out the window.  
Blake quietly drew the pistol she kept by her bed and slightly pulled on the slide to see the chamber. When she saw the brass of a round in the chamber she gently lowered the slide.  
"I said that I had no doubts about you Blake" as he spoke she raised the pistol and leveled the sights on the back of his head. " I didn't say what I had no doubts on, however," CLICK the sound broke the silence that followed Jaune's statement.

In shock Blake swiftly racked the slide and tried again to no avail. Looking at the round she saw that it was a complete and functional 10mm cartridge.

" bedside table" Jaune said still looking out the window. As she opened the drawer and looked within Jaune kept speaking. " did you think I would have this discussion with you and leave you with a functional weapon." true to his word in the drawer was a small pin. To the untrained, it would seem unimportant but to Blake, it was the firing pin from her pistol. Without it, the hammer could drop on the transfer bar all day and the gun would never go off. Blake looked back at Jaune and thought about what she should do when she locked her eyes on him she saw that he had turned around. She knew she could replace the pin in seconds and by the weight of the gun, the rest of the mag was still loaded.  
"Don't even think about it?" Jaune said. When she looked back she saw that he had already drawn one of his revolvers and leveled it at her. " you move and you die. This gun is loaded with specialist anti-aura rounds. They will punch a hole through you like you are made of cardstock. And I don't miss."

Blake's heart was racing was this how it ended. Gunned down for her actions in a lonely dorm room. Slowly Jaune holstered his pistol and said. " also know you were blackmailed into it. Do you know who it was?"

Blake knew who but couldn't do anything about it. "Robert Stevens Hoskins"

This brought a look of understanding on Jaune's face. "Now it all makes sense. I was never the target and in a way neither was Weiss. It was you."

Needless to say, Blake was confused by his theory. "Hear me out," Jaune said " let's say this plan works then Weiss should die trying to fix the detonators and if she does then the investigation starts. The investigation leads to Chad who leads to a leak which leads to you. Your blackmailer would remain unknown as he most likely wanted you to know who he was and has a high grade paid for alibi. What do you see as the victim? You see the SDC kill its own heir in order to frame a former White Fang operative. This way Jacques Schnee can hand General Ironwood a blank check and tell him to kill every white fang operative on remnant. The only issue is that Weiss lived and if the SDC wanted her dead she would be which means that the plan was never meant to kill Weiss, just start the investigation that would lead to you trying to kill Weiss. After all, I imagine Robert Hoskins has framed you from Blackmailing Chad. the secret is that Hoskins is being paid off or blackmailed himself by another party"

"Who?" Blake asked worried about the possibility of a threat greater than the SDC.

"Think about you would go if you were chased from Beacon Blake. You can't go home, you would only endanger your parents that way you can't stay here. That only leaves one person"

"Adam" Blake said her voice frail and small.

"who would be waiting with open , this whole thing was done by your crazy ex-boyfriend who wanted you back. I haven't got proof but I don't need to build a court case just my own case. Jorge knows where the Fang operatives in the area are meeting with Hoskins. Me, Luke, and a few others are going to raid it tonight. You stay here. I can't fully trust you yet."  
As he left the room Jaune said."I have an operation to prepare for so please tell teams RWBY and PLNR to the docks at four. If you don't want to come yourself you don't have to." as he disappeared down the hall Blake thought of what Adam would have done if she had sold him out.

Team's RWY and PLNR were gathered at the docks where Jaune was waiting for them in his old combat gear of black BDUs and a black t-shirt with a black tactical vest. His C.A.S.A.C.O.M. was strapped to his leg and when they were all situated he spoke in a voice that could only be defined as leaderly said.

"What I am about to ask is a very personal question and if you don't want to answer feel no shame, however, know that if you answer no matter what your answer you are still a member of my team and are still my friend." Having taken a moment to allow his words to settle in Jaune continued.

"The operation we are about to go on is likely to result in bloodshed and most likely death. The headmaster doesn't know because he wouldn't okay this op. Because of this, I am asking anyone who has killed another human being and is willing to risk doing so once more to please step forward."

Before anyone else had the chance to do anything Luke began to step forward and stopped beside Jaune saying  
"you all know that I have a body count so I have nothing to hide here."

They stood there for a few seconds before Jaune and Luke began to turn only to be joined by both Ren and Nora who each had a somber face which seemed at home on Ren but out of place on Nora.

"We lived in the wilds of Mistral for many years, we have seen and done many things. And though I tried to protect Nora from some of the things that had to be done. I am only human" Ren's words were poignant and well thought out as all of his words were. In truth, it was no surprise to find that they had both taken life with the background they had. It was almost a given.

When Pyrrha tried to step forward Luke waved her off saying  
" a training accident doesn't count here "understanding what Luke meant Pyrrha stepped back into the line of students after this no one moved for a moment and when there was a muffled gasp that came from Ruby Bud stepped forward and said.

"I haven't killed any humans but I have killed what are basically aliens so I'm in," he said as he strolled over next to the group. After looking them over Jaune nodded and said.

"Well, I was expecting to be doing this with just Luke so you three are a welcome add-on." with that the team of students made their way from the docks and into the bullhead that Jaune had "commandeered" the keys for. Once they stepped in they saw three men all wearing clothes similar to Jaune but in brown and grey and they had different looking weapons.

"Are you Jaune Arc?" the one who seemed to be the leader asked as he stepped forward to great the group of hunters.

"I am Jaune Arc" Jaune responded as he held his right hand out inviting a handshake. When it was accepted Jaune asked, "who are you three?"  
Taking a step back the man gestured to either side of him and said "I am Sandman, this is Truck and Grinch. We are friends of Jorge and heard you might need an assault team so we dropped by. Do you have a plan on where we are going and what we will do when we get there?"  
As they all sat in the bullhead's canvas seats the two groups exchanged names and then began to plan what they were going to do. One thing was certain they would have answers by the end of the day.


	7. Chapter 7

They approach low and fast from the south of the warehouse. The key that they would need in this attack was speed and surprise. The three men who Jorge sent said that they would need to have the bullhead stop in order for them to get out. It was for this reason that the three men who claimed to be a part of DELTA force would be dropped afterward in key locations to provide overwatch and fast exfil from the building if they needed it.

"Ten seconds to jump," Jaune said as he did a final check on his gear. " rockslide 2 through 5 final gear check and sound off"

One by one all of them checked the gear and gave an audible "check" or "ready".

The pilot began to call out "Jump, Jump, Jump"

All at once the team of five jumped from the back of the bullhead and landed on the roof of the compound. Making their way to the door on the roof of the warehouse. "Rockslide 4 hold the roof. If anyone enters let us know."

Nodding for confirmation Nora took up a position on the roof where she could see the major avenues of approach. And waited for further instruction.

Upon making their way down the stairs they found themselves faced with a pair of sentries that were on the way to the roof to investigate the odd series of thumps that happened less than a minute ago. Not needing to give any orders to handle to hostiles Jaune raised his C.A.S.A.C.O.M. to his shoulder and used the echo function on his trigger. As he pulled the trigger on rifle once the suppressed firearms sent a high expansion bullet flying through the at just under the speed of sound. The projectile slammed into the chest of the first sentry and dumped all of its kinetic energy into his chest tearing a hole in his chest almost an inch in diameter that stopped just shy of coming out the Faunus's back. Leveling the crosshairs on the chest of next faunus he took his finger off the trigger and once the trigger reset the rifle fired again. It was the beauty of the echo or binary function on his trigger. For each full operation of the trigger, two rounds were fired. With this setting Jaune could fire two rounds in the blink of an eye or only fire one and then put the trigger back on semi-auto in or to render the trigger reset safe.

With both rounds fired in less than a second. The two faunus never had a chance to even cry out for help before they were both dead before their bodies had even hit the floor both having had their hearts destroyed. Completely encompassed by the hole Jaune had drilled in them.

" Rockslide 2,3, and 5 stack up, one to each door" not needing any further words to be exchanged Jaune, Luke, Ren, and Bud all prepared to breach all of the doors into the main control rooms. " go on 2. Ready 5,4,3,2" on the call of 2 everyone moved at once. Jaune kicked in one door while Bud and Luke kicked in two others. At the same time, Ren made an entrance through one of the windows into the room. As they rushed in the security force inside tried to respond but were all quickly cut down by Jaune's C.A.S.A.C.O.M. fire. This was a major shock to Ren who knew that Jaune was an experienced fighter but also knew that in the only way you got to the point where you could kill five men in less time than it took the rest of your team to even fire off one shot was that you have been killing for far too long. And have seen far too much death.

The moral implications of Jaune's hyper lethality aside Ren turned his focus back to the mission at hand. As they made their way to the final room in the warehouse's office complex they all stacked up on the door into the room and when they all signaled ready Jaune opened the door and threw a shining thunder flash grenade in. he closed the door and when the blast sounded they all rushed the room and were all briefly confused by what they saw.

Lying dead on the floor was the man they were here for. Robert Steven Hoskins was dead. It looked like he was shot three times in the chest by a burst fire weapon.

At that moment Nora came over the intercom. " Boss we got a problem"

Jaune lowered his rifle from Hoskins dead body and responded with "go for boss rockslide 4. What is the problem?"

" it's Ruby," Nora said with equal levels of amusement and worry in her voice. " she just entered the warehouse"

"Copy rockslide 4. Out"

Jaune turned to Bud and said " get your girlfriend out of here, you now have orders to take Ruby Rose back to Beacon, she MUST survive. If she doesn't live then neither will you. Am I understood" Bud simply nodded as he ran to the main entrance into the warehouse. Once he found Ruby just inside the door he scooped her up and kept running to the nearest vehicle depot which was seven blocks east of the warehouse. Internally Bud was thanking Jolt for making him learn the basic layout of the city but he could appreciate the mini-con's forward-thinking later right now he had more important things to worry about.

If Ruby was speaking to him Bud wasn't listening he knew that she came here against orders and needlessly put herself in danger. While he wasn't mad at her he wasn't happy with her either. Then Bud's radio crackled to life as Jaune spoke while firing his rifle, thankfully the suppressor meant that he could still be heard " Bud, this was an ambush you have several hostiles heading your way. Sandman, Truck, and Grinch are also on their way to you but they are gonna arrive a 90 seconds after the main force. I recommend you find a good location and hunker down."

Running into a nearby building Bud placed Ruby on the ground behind the counter of what seemed to be an abandoned convenience store before saying to her. " you WILL stay here and you will not move. No matter what you hear you don't leave this room." believing his point was made and understood Bud turned to the door and ran back out to engage the ambushing force that was pursuing him.

…

As the white fang quick response force attacked the humans who tried to destroy their base of operations. They were informed that two of them were seen fleeing from the base. This resulted in five of the QRF operators breaking off from the rest of the force and chasing them down. They were lead on quite the chase and the human covered a great deal of ground before they caught up with him. As they rounded the corner of one street they saw him rushing into the alley of another. In silence, they made their way to the alley and began to slowly enter into it. They left two men at the entrance to keep from being trapped. Once the point man reached the back of the alley he found what looked like puncture holes in the brick wall of the next building. Then there was a crunching sound at the front of the alley and when he looked back he saw the human they chased into the alley standing over the two soldiers guarding the entrance. Both of whom were now dead having had a blade shoved into the back of their necks and then out through their throats.

"You shouldn't have followed me," he said as he began to carve his way to the man in the back of the alley. It was only now becoming obvious to them that this was a trap they played right into. They stuck themselves in an alley and the only way out was for them to go through the man standing in the opening of it.

The unknown assailant has managed to kill most of the soldiers before anyone could get a shot off at him and even then he was able to either use his armor to deflect the rounds or fight for the weapon of the shooter. It was only when the commander of the unit pulled back and allowed his men to all be killed by the tonfa wielding warrior that he was able to get a clean shot at the man's exposed side. As he pulled the trigger he felt the gun buck in his hands and saw the attacker's side begin to bleed from the hole he had just punched into it. Sadly it was too little too late as the armored attacker had already leveled one of the commander's men's weapons on him and he to squeezed the trigger. This time the commander fell to the ground with a bullet hole in his forehead located just between his eyes.

As he limped out of the alley Bud saw Sandman and Truck approach him and when they saw he was injured they both began to administer first aid to his wounded side. After Bud managed to get the two surprisingly skilled medics to stop stuffing his bullet hole with what they called "quikclot gauze" he limped over to the door of the abandoned shop where he left Ruby."Ruby," he said his voice filled with worry " it's alright you can come out now" he hadn't even finished the sentence before Ruby shot from the dark building and wrapped her arms around him. This earned a pained grunt from Bud which Ruby instantly took note of.

"What happened to you," she said as she looked him over noticing the bloody gauze in his side. "Oh my god, are you going to be okay?" she asked afraid of losing someone she just got back.

"He's gonna be fine ma'am" Sandman said as he approached the two of them. " he took a minor hit on his side but the bullet didn't go too deep and it missed his liver, he'll live but we should still get him to a proper hospital" the Delta force operator said. Bud knew he was right. He had heard of Delta force back on earth and if what he heard was to be believed then they were better at trauma triage then the average paramedic

"Right," Bud said as he looked back to Ruby I probably should have done this before going and fighting the guys chasing us but now is still as good a time as any." then in one sudden move Bud craned his neck down as he curled one hand around the back of Ruby's neck as the other arm snaked around her body as he pulled her into a gentle and loving kiss. Ruby stiffened slightly at the surprise factor of all of this but soon relaxed and just went with the flow of the kiss.

After they were standing like that for about five seconds Sandman looked to Truck who was also feeling awkward just watching the two teens make out in the street of nearly abandon part of town. " hey Truck," he said "let's go do some dead checks on the guys in the alley." it was a lousy excuse as they wouldn't be recording the kills for this operation since they as a unit hadn't gotten any so far. But it gave the two lovebirds a moment of privacy from the two middle-aged men who could have had kids their age by now if they were still on Earth.

Once the two camo-clad killers walked off to inspect the bodies in the alley Bud and Ruby separated from one another. " Ruby," Bud said as he looked into her somewhat distracted eyes. " I love you."

If the kiss hadn't fried Ruby's brain then the combination of what he just said and the way he said it did. Bud just told her that he loved her and he didn't say fast like it was the adrenaline talking. He said it calmly and simply as though it were so obvious that he loved her that he need not say so. It wasn't an emotionally charged confession rather it was a casual statement of fact. And that had so much more meaning to her.

She stared into his eyes for a time. Even after she noticed Sandman and Truck had returned from wherever they went to she just looked into his eyes and saw love itself looking back. She began to think of how she was going to tell Yang about this (even though Ruby figured that Yang already knew) when something happened that irrevocably changed her life in two seconds.


	8. Chapter 8

Ruby awoke in the space between her sister and Jaune where she had wedged herself. Jaune was still unconscious and Yang hadn't moved from where she was when she consoled Ruby. her eyes were sore and bloodshot. And she could tell she was dehydrated. Even though it hurt to think of it she felt herself go back to the moment it all went wrong.

The silence that Ruby and Bud were enjoying was shattered by a loud BANG!. Bud was rocked back a step. When she looked she saw three glowing dots on his chest. She was then violently tackled to the ground by Sandman as he bellowed out

"SNIPER, TRUCK SUPPRESS HIM. GRINCH GET EYES ON AND SMOKE THE BASTARD" all at once the world around her exploded into sound as a second louder BOOM. crashed over her ears. Ruby couldn't see anything as she was pinned under Sandman who was using himself to shield her from any potential fire. And at the same time, he was pulling a grenade from his vest and shouting over the radio " POPPING SMOKE". For a couple of seconds all she heard was the sound of Truck's machine gun throwing lead at the window he suspected the sniper to be in. once the smoke had filled the air around her she felt herself being lifted into the air and carried. She didn't know how Sandman was doing it because she could hardly breathe with the smoke in the air but he was sprinting to the nearest building. She had just begun to breathe regularly again when she saw him. Bud Hansen the man who told her less than ten seconds ago that he loved her was lying in the street. A crater was blown into his chest where his heart and lungs should have been. She could still see his once bright and warm blue eyes were now cold and lifeless and had taken on a twinge of grey.

She tried to get to him only to be held back by Sandman who, rightfully didn't want a child to run into the crosshairs of a sniper. She didn't know when she started to cry but now she was just screaming incoherently. She fought with Sandman for a time before they were both momentarily distracted by several laser blast falling from the sky and destroying the building the sniper was in. it was Ruby who snapped out of the shock first and used her semblance to break free leaving Sandman holding a cloud of rose petals. In less than an instant, she was at Bud's side crying and shaking his body trying to get a response. The logic centered part of her mind knew that Bud was gone and that shaking him and begging him not to go won't change a thing but. He emotions, however, had taken over and she lost all control of herself.

She sat there and cried and cried and cried. She was still crying when Sandman stood between her and a half-dozen White Fang militants. She cried as the delta force operator once again used himself as a shield for her as he fired on them. She cried while he was applying a tourniquet to own leg after being shot defending her. She kept crying until Jaune came by and picked her up. It took all of his strength to pry her aura enhanced arms from Bud but once they were off she instantly wrapped them around her defacto brother and began to weep once more into his shoulder. he made his way to team RWBY's room to get Ruby to Yang before he passed out.

Ruby kept on crying even after she came out of her flashback. She could still see Bud's lifeless eyes. Eyes that less than 7 seconds ago told her that they loved her and were now empty.

She hadn't meant to wake Jaune up with her sobbing but she had. And she soon felt his loving and strong arms wrap around her. And run one hand through her hair as the other rubbed her back. He spoke to her in a voice that she knew was what a brother would use when consoling a distraught sister. "Shh, I know. It's not okay. But we WILL get YOU through this. I promise you that.

The combination of her shaking and his speaking woke up Yang who too wrapped her arms around her sister and held her tightly. They were in mourning and this was a necessary part of the process.

They weren't like that for long before they heard an amused chuckle from the door. "So, who is the young man I now need to kill for sleeping with both of my nieces." all at once the three people in the hospital bed turned and faced their accuser. The moment Ruby saw her uncle her face brightened slightly, for Yang it was just a wry grin at the comment he just made. After all, he knew better. While Yang loved her baby sister there were somethings that she would share with nobody. Once Jaune and Qrow made eye contact they both began to move. Qrow reached behind himself to put his hand on his weapon and Jaune lunged from his bed and reached the nearest weapon he could find. (thankfully, Luke followed orders and hid a pistol at the foot of Jaune's bed.)

"Qrow!" Jaune said his voice was different from any he had used with his team and it scared Yang and Ruby when he used it.

They saw their uncle's face harden as well " Sheriff" he said in an equally hard voice. There was an unspoken debate between the two of them. On his best day, Jaune would have a hard fighting Qrow. ANd Jaune was far from on his best day. Qrow seemed to realize this and they both looked at each other for a spell longer before Qrow broke off the staring contest and said "I came to get the pipsqueak to eat something." holding out his arms and waiting for Ruby to appear in them he was disturbed to see her stand up and walk over to him instead.

As they left Qrow looked back into the room and in a low voice said " by the way Sheriff, you bleeding again"

Looking down Jaune saw that he had indeed torn a stitch or two when he leaped from his hospital bed. He was still trying to remember what he got this particular set of stitches for when he was interrupted from his thoughts by an annoyed voice from his bed. " I thought you were just here because you passed out from exhaustion." it wasn't really a question it was more a statement and Jaune knew it.

Bribing the doctor to downplay any injury he may have had as much as he legally could and to omit the things he couldn't down play when he spoke to Jaune's team had clearly not worked here. "Well, I may have also received a minor cut on my side in the process of getting back here." in saying this Jaune made a critical error. He looked away from Yang in part because he had a hard time lying to her face and because he simply forgot that his full medical report was written on the clipboard hanging off the front of his bed.

Quickly Yang scooped it up and began to read aloud her voice growing more irritated with each comment. "Severe shock and blunt force trauma. Broken ribs, contusions, and third-degree burns. Injuries indicate that the patient jumped on multiple explosive charges most likely hand grenades." by the end of the sentence she was fuming mad. So much so that she even seemed to have heat mirages coming off of her hair. Jaune thought that she was done when she kept reading. " penetrating injury to the chest consistent with a gunshot wound. High caliber." she fell silent for a time as she seemed to think about what she just read. " YOU GOT SHOT" now she was beyond mad. Her hair was now engulfed in flame and Jaune was beginning to wish he had his C.A.S.A.C.O.M. with him. He would be hesitant to use the stun rounds since they would only feed her semblance he might have use for the tranq rounds. the more he thought about it the more he thought better of it. After all she would only get madder at him and the tranqs were meant to postpone any fits of anger, not end them. That being said he wished for some way to end her growing rage before she furthered his injuries.

"Yang," Jaune said as he put his arms out in front of him in a defensive way. "Please calm down. If you act on your anger then you will only hurt me more than I already am." Yang, of course, wasn't listening to him. She was getting closer to him now and her heat caused one of his bandages to ignite. In that moment Jaune's focus broke and he felt the pain he was truly in. it was excruciating. The pain from his injuries alone was great but now that his side was literally on fire his facade fell and he breathed in to cry but the yell was yanked from him by the pain and he began to collapse to the floor.

In an instant, Yang's rage was gone and her worry for then badly injured man before her came to the surface." Hold on," she said as she helped him to the bed. She tried to get him to lay down but he refused and began to search one of the carts. After rifling for a time Jaune extracted a spool of sterile thread and a hooked sewing needle. He adjusted his gown for a moment and when he was getting annoyed with it so without thinking he ripped the gown off and though Yang would like to say that she knew that Jaune had a pair of underwear on but she couldn't say that because then she would be lying.

"Umm… what are you doing Jaune" Yang said as she felt her face begin to redden at the sight of her team leader standing in front of her in nothing more but his underwear. These thoughts were quickly shut down as she saw his body was covered in scars. He had multiple long cuts that ran the length of his back from his left shoulder to his right waist. There were several smaller scars she thought were most likely bullet and stab wounds. She was breathless at the amount and placement of the battle scars. When he turned to look at her she was assaulted not only by the sight of her team leader who appeared to be carved from granite but also by the sight of all of the matching bullet wounds and new stab wounds as well as the long scars that ran as long as the ones on his back.

She was snapped from her thoughts when Jaune answered her question and began to sew his own side up. "I am replacing the stitch that I tore when I jumped out of bed to almost shoot Qrow. By the way, he isn't really your uncle is he?"

Yang looked away to keep her head clear and responded with " yes, he really is my uncle. Why do you ask? And why did you almost shoot him.?"

Jaune kept stitching himself and Yang was starting to think that she should get a nurse in here to put the stitch back in. "Yang," Jaune said his voice taking on a tone of seriousness. " there are many things that if we knew them would change the way we see the world. The darker side of that man is one of those things. If you truly in your very heart want to know at this moment what he did that caused my reaction to him then I will tell you. But only if you truly want to know RIGHT NOW. I don't think you are ready yet. And that is nothing to be mad or ashamed of. It simply means you aren't ready."

Having a moment of great maturity that was uncommon for her during her more layed back attitude she nodded and said "I understand, sometimes in order to do the right thing we must do the wrong thing. It makes us no more bad or good it simply makes us hunters"

Jaune was impressed that Yang understood what he said to her. He almost began to consider telling her what her uncle did that in Durant but he thought better of it turning his focus back to the task at hand of stitching his side back up.

He had just finished up when he tied off the stitch just as a nurse walked in. her face paled at the sight of what Jaune had done. "You should have had me do that," she said. It was clear that she was annoyed and was moving as though she meant to remove the ones Jaune put in and put her own in.

She was cut off from this action as Jaune half spoke half growled at her "No if you even come within arms reach of me with the intent to undo or redo my work then I will personally throw you out the nearest window. I only trust five people to work on me with sharp objects and you aren't one of them." understanding the sincerity of his threat the nurse quickly did an about face and left the room.

This left Yang to awkwardly shift between looking at Jaune and looking away the moment he caught her watching him. After he spent a few minutes finalizing the stitch and making sure everything was in order he made his way over to the table where his clothes were kept and started to redress himself. After he finished he turned to leave.

He was cut off by Yang who was much more confident this time as she asked "And where do you think you are going?" she already knew the answer but she refused to accept it. No matter how tough he may act she would not allow him to push himself like this.

"I am going to check on my team. We lost someone. And while Bud may not have been one of our teammates he was still our friend" Jaune said as he started for the door. He had hoped that he left no room for argument in his voice as he reached for the handle.

"Like hell, you are" came Yang's response. He also knew that she left no room for argument in her tone. This put them at a paradox. The unstoppable force had just met the immovable object so what happened now? The answer was obvious, they compromised.

" if you won't let me go then you need to go and check on them. Especially, Blake, I don't want her blaming herself for this." with his order given Jaune made his way back to the bed and sat down as Yang left to go play mom for both teams.

Lori waited down the hall from Jaune's room for thirty seconds after Yang left before she approached the door. In her hand was the scalpel she had snuck out of one of the hospital supply rooms. They were locked with a biometric lock. But one of the perks of having a genius inventor for a boyfriend was that you could ask nicely find out how to bypass almost any locking mechanism. She doubted Coby knew why she wanted to know how to defeat a bio-lock but he still told her that he had a device that could do it. He said it was of cybertronian origin and that it for lack of a better phrase "burrowed through" the system.

Now with her blade in her hand, she stepped through the doorway and there she saw him. The man who was to blame for Bud's death. He seemed to be resting and that only made her anger grow stronger. It was because of his incompetence that Bud was dead and would be him who had to die for it. She walked slowly as to not make any sound and when she was beside his bed she held the blade to his throat.

"Lori don't do it" the words broke her focus from the matter at hand and when she turned to look at the source she saw Coby standing there. His face held a mix of pain and worry. "Even if you kill him, Bud isn't going to come back and you are going to jail. And we both know I won't let that happen. But I don't want to have to owe a favor to Jorge. He has a terrible sense of timing." at the conclusion of the joke both of them gave a light chuckle. Looking back to the still sleeping man she once more held the blade against his throat.

"He killed Bud Coby. he has to pay." her voice was rising slightly.

"Yes, Lori he will pay. Whether it is or isn't his fault. He will never stop thinking about what he could have done to save him. He will always hate himself thinking about how he could have done things differently. Bud's death will forever haunt his dreams. He will never be free of it. That is a greater penalty than anything you could do to him with that scalpel"

Lori thought about Coby's monologue and then she had a thought that would haunt her till the end of her days. " what of his friends, perhaps I could take one of his friends from him, force him to share our pain." even as she said them the words scared her. Was she truly so distraught as to become a monster herself? She was shaken from her inward focused terror when a hand like steel wrapped around her wrist. Looking down she saw Jaune's eyes. They were not only open they also shone with the fury of a hundred stars.

Acting fast Jaune pulled her arm across his body and after securing a straight armbar hold to keep her from stabbing him. Once that was done he began to whisper in her ear "threaten, insult, and hate me all you want. But if you ever lay a finger on one of my people I will take your life apart around you. Holding his right hand out to gesture to Coby who was being held at the door by Luke who was waiting just in case something like this happened. Once her eyes fell on Coby Jaune continued "I will start with him and I will work my way through your entire family one by one. Make no mistake once you hurt my people I am no longer the good guy. I am the monster you made."

Having released her arm Lori took off to Coby who was also released by Luke. only looking back for a moment Lori quickly left the room. It may not have been nice but it was true. Everyman has one thing you don't threaten. In the case of Jaune, it is his team. Turning to Luke Jaune said,"if I leave how long till you tell Yang?"

Luke seemed to think for a few seconds before answering "three and a half minutes" he said looking down at his watch.

Knowing that he was on the clock Jaune quickly got out of bed and began to move as fast as he could in the direction of the dorms of team Rockslide. He knew Yang would be unhappy with him but after having his team threatened he needed to see them.

He was halfway through to the dorms when a fanus student shoulder checked Jaune and sent him stumbling into the wall cringing in pain at his injuries. As he fought back to his feet he saw that the student had dropped a note and when he tried to give it to them they were already gone. Looking down at the note Jaune read one chilling sentence written in on black cardstock in white ink.

 ** _Murderers have no real friends, be careful who you call for backup._**

As he made his way into team the PLNR dorm he knew that his life just got a lot more difficult.

* * *

thank you all for reading. any reviews of the story are appreciated. I will be continuing with the next story soon

sincerly Noruas.


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